Im wondering how having a really high limit on credit cards will affect getting loans. Although my credit score is good, my report shows two credit cards that my mother gave me when I was in college and both of them are showing big limits. Will this negatively impact how much money lenders will give me?

A financial aid officer at G-town said that having credit cards with high limits and that you aren't really using is actually good for your credit. The point is that you have all this money (credit) that you could use but you aren't using it. So you are seen as responsible. He told us to keep our credit cards open b/c suddenly closing them will negatively impact our credit. He gave us some example that I can't quite remember. So, don't worry.

In response to the earlier post about checking out loans being bad for your credit:

Any credit checks within a two week period (except for credit cards) appear and are calculated as only 1 check. Pulling your own credit report also appears as 1 check. Having a few of these every once in a while is not bad and would not really hurt your score.

If you're in a region that doesn't have access to a free credit report yet, I'd suggest applying for a loan you don't think you could get and then using the denial to request a free copy of the credit report.

Note that checking your own score is classified as a "soft" hit. Absolutely no affect to your score, you can check this out at myfico.com. Oh, and applying for a long in hopes for a denial is not a good idea at all. The $14 you save to get a free credit report is not worth the hit to your credit score that comes from being denied for a loan.

everyone should go to experian.com...and sign up for their credit manager for free for one month. you get your credit score and your whole report and explanation for free. you can also dispute everything on ur report. i did this a month ago, and things i was late on i disputed and all of it is off now and i have a great score again. now i'm gonna call and cancel it...take this advice...it takes 30 days for things to clear and its really simple...

la-man, i went to experian today and got my free report. thanks for the advice!

by the way, experians reports are much easier to read than the ones from equifax.

murkydreamer

So let's say that I have 2 credit cards. One with a much higher limit than the other. If I use up *a lot* of my credit line on my lower limit card but keep my other card fairly low, does that negatively impact my credit score? Do they calculate scores etc based on your total credit or each individual card?

if you're in the right states go to freecreditreport.com. you get it once a year - it doesn't show scores but it shows history and everything each agency has on you.

checking your own score does not hurt your score.

One of the ratios they look at is available revolving credit to credit used, i.e. I have $15,000 available on my cards (total) and I'm revolving $10k is not good, however I have $150,000 available and I'm revolving $10k, better, I have no revolving credit but a lot available to me is the best. That's just one ratio, however. Others include monthly payments v. gross income (stay well under 30%), other assets, how many of those damn department store cards (bad), if you've been applying for credit, etc.

While cancelling credit cards does hurt your ratio of used to available, at a certain point you should get rid of cards if they aren't being used so you can manage it better and minimize risk. I have over $150k in available credit cards, and I don't use much, so if I get a new one I cancel one I won't use again. If I don't use one, I don't keep it open. Don't just cut the card, call the credit card company and request to cancel the account. It shows up on your credit report as voluntarily closed by the user, and it doesn't hurt your score (other than that used/available ratio).

Beware - the scores you 'buy' from them aren't necessarily the scores they give to the bank. The only one that you can trust are your scores when applying for a mortgage - the bank is required to allow you to see that. You can't get the score they give to the bank yourself. I have no idea why. Also, the scores from the 3 credit bureaus are not on the same scale, so a 650 from experian isn't the same as a 650 from trans-union. You don't have a credit score, you have 3 or more of them depending on the who is ordering it and what you're ordering it for. it's very confusing. The only way to know for sure is to apply, which if done too much for different things is not good.

More research - a good reference is Michelle Singletary on washingtonpost.com - she's got a lot of good info.

if you're in the right states go to freecreditreport.com. you get it once a year - it doesn't show scores but it shows history and everything each agency has on you.

checking your own score does not hurt your score.

One of the ratios they look at is available revolving credit to credit used, i.e. I have $15,000 available on my cards (total) and I'm revolving $10k is not good, however I have $150,000 available and I'm revolving $10k, better, I have no revolving credit but a lot available to me is the best. That's just one ratio, however. Others include monthly payments v. gross income (stay well under 30%), other assets, how many of those damn department store cards (bad), if you've been applying for credit, etc.

While cancelling credit cards does hurt your ratio of used to available, at a certain point you should get rid of cards if they aren't being used so you can manage it better and minimize risk. I have over $150k in available credit cards, and I don't use much, so if I get a new one I cancel one I won't use again. If I don't use one, I don't keep it open. Don't just cut the card, call the credit card company and request to cancel the account. It shows up on your credit report as voluntarily closed by the user, and it doesn't hurt your score (other than that used/available ratio).

Beware - the scores you 'buy' from them aren't necessarily the scores they give to the bank. The only one that you can trust are your scores when applying for a mortgage - the bank is required to allow you to see that. You can't get the score they give to the bank yourself. I have no idea why. Also, the scores from the 3 credit bureaus are not on the same scale, so a 650 from experian isn't the same as a 650 from trans-union. You don't have a credit score, you have 3 or more of them depending on the who is ordering it and what you're ordering it for. it's very confusing. The only way to know for sure is to apply, which if done too much for different things is not good.

More research - a good reference is Michelle Singletary on washingtonpost.com - she's got a lot of good info.

whoa- that's a bit unsettling. So you can't trust the scores directly from the credit bureaus? How much are they usually off?

everyone should go to experian.com...and sign up for their credit manager for free for one month. you get your credit score and your whole report and explanation for free. you can also dispute everything on ur report. i did this a month ago, and things i was late on i disputed and all of it is off now and i have a great score again. now i'm gonna call and cancel it...take this advice...it takes 30 days for things to clear and its really simple...

la-man, i went to experian today and got my free report. thanks for the advice!

by the way, experians reports are much easier to read than the ones from equifax.